


Stolen

by orpheusheart



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-15
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-29 12:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1005486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orpheusheart/pseuds/orpheusheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An accident took something important away from Takao.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stolen

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a fan art I saw on pixiv. This takes place sometime in the future; Midorima's a surgeon, and Takao works as a teacher in the same school as Kuroko.

—-

"Midorima-sensei, you’re needed in the emergency room. There’s a new case, hit and run."

Pocketing the gold coloured contacts (lucky item for the day), Midorima accepted the manila folder and gestured for the nurse to follow him towards the emergency room. “What’s the status so far?”

"Shards of glass embedded in the patient’s torso, thankfully none of the vital organs were pierced, though there was an alarmingly abnormal dent at the back of the head. The patient’s condition is unstable, general anaesthesia was administered but we do not know how long he’ll last."

Midorima glanced through the statistics; male, mid to late twenties, taller than average, appears to be Japanese. Important documents were not on his person making it hard to identify him, but Midorima will handle that later once the patient was taken care of.

The trip from his office to the emergency room was enough time for him read through the folder, preparing himself for the worst. It did not prepare him for who he would encounter, and the nurses glanced up worriedly when they heard him take a very sharp intake of breath so unlike his usual stoic nature.

_Kazunari? No, it can’t be. He was with Kuroko, last I heard from him._

The man on the bed did look like his partner, but there was too much blood for him to tell exactly. His hands trembled as he unwrapped the bandages around his left fingers, so much so that the lead nurse touched his wrist and asked him what was wrong, did he know the patient, perhaps they could ask another doctor to aid him…

"I… am not certain as of now, but I am alright working on my own," he murmured, slipping on the scrubs and gloves. The room fell silent as he began the operation, steadily extracting the superficial glass shards, working his way down the torso. The patient’s vital signs seemed to be stabilising with each shard he pulled out, the heart rate still fast but constant once the last superficial piece was remove.

The deeper shards took more time to extract, and Midorima bit his lower lip behind his mask uncharacteristically, each piece he removed bigger than the previous one. The last one was embedded right above the left hipbone; Midorima had to stop and stare for a good minute before he steeled himself to continue.

_Kazunari has a birthmark right there… It can’t be a coincidence. Nothing in this world is a coincidence._

Midorima let out the breath he didn’t remember holding once the last shard was extracted, carefully sewing up the bigger cuts and patching up the smaller ones. Once most of the wounds were sterilised and tended to, he took a good look at the face covered by the oxygen mask.

Thin eyebrows, short eyelashes, sharp nose, pointed chin, strong jawline, all framed by jet black hair cut short by the nape of the neck, bangs swept back by gravity.

A gloved hand hovered over the patient’s forehead. Trembling fingers pulled back an eyelid, revealing an amber gold eye. The pupil constricted too slowly (a side effect from the anaesthesia, he reassured himself), but there was no mistaking it.

It was definitely _his_ Kazunari.

Midorima calmly excused himself and headed for the restroom, tasting bile in his mouth. He hadn’t retched since his first operation years ago; it hurt his stomach and throat, his mind still reeling from the realisation.

He had to make sure it _was_ his partner before he jumped to conclusions.

He left the lead nurse in charge of the patient while he made a phone call back in his office, absently fingering the tiny glass bottles in his pocket as the dial tone rang once, twice, then-

`"Hello, Kuroko speaking."`

"Kuroko. Midorima here. Has Kazu- Has Takao left the school?"

`"Hello, Midorima-kun. Takao-kun left quite some time ago."`

"How long ago? Be specific, this is important."

A pause. `"I think about an hour or so. He said he had something important to do."`

"Did he bring his wallet and phone out with him when he left?"

`"I’m not sure, Midorima-kun… Did something happen to Takao-kun?"`

"… It’s nothing. He was supposed to call me once he was done with work."

`He had said he was in a rush to get home. Something about it being an anniversary.”`

Midorima glanced at the calendar on his desk. Sixth of October. Nothing special was on, last he could remember; perhaps it was just something Takao wanted to celebrate with his family.

`"… Midorima-kun? Did something happen to Takao-kun?"`

"… No, nothing is wrong. Thank you, Kuroko."

`"It’s no problem. And don’t work so hard. Takao-kun complains about your late hours a lot."`

"He should understand that doctors, let alone surgeons, rarely get a break, Kuroko."

`"Firemen too, but I see Taiga-kun more than Takao-kun sees you."`

Midorima rolled his eyes. “Firemen and doctors don’t work the same hours. Goodbye, Kuroko.”

`"Goodbye, Midorima-kun."`

He was done with his fingers when a shy-looking nurse poked her head into his office. “Uhm, Midorima-sensei?”

Green eyes glanced over as she clutched the clipboard to her chest. “Yes?”

"The patient is slowly gaining consciousness," she reported, quickly passing the clipboard over before stepping back and bowing slightly. "The anaesthesia has worn off, and his vital signs are stable. But… he’s acting strange, Midorima-sensei."

That caught his attention, and he looked up from the results on the clipboard. “Define strange.”

"He’s becoming restless, sensei. Touching his face and muttering something under his breath. I suspect a post-traumatic stress disorder, but I think it would be better if you diagnose him personally, Midorima-sensei."

He followed her to Taka- the patient’s room, dismissing her once he was there. The rustling sounds stopped when he knocked on the door, and he quietly entered after a muffled “who’s there?” was heard.

"I’m the one who operated on you." He settled down on the chair by the bedside, careful to keep his voice soft and calm. The patient seemed to be searching for something, eyes wide open and searching but never focusing.

"This is a hospital right? The nurse said I got it bad." He sounded like Takao, even chuckled like him. But the look on his face was worrying, brows knitted and mouth pulled down at the corners, but his eyes were what worried Midorima the most. They looked too blank, devoid of emotions and life. This surely wasn’t Takao.

"There were more than ten glass shards embedded in your torso," Midorima continued, distracting himself with the results as his patient pushed himself up by the elbows. "The lead nurse mentioned a dent in your head, but I doubt that’s anything significant-"

"Shin…chan?"

The clipboard dropped onto the floor as Midorima cupped the patient- no, _Takao’s_ face in his hands. “Kazunari?”

"Shin-chan, it’s you, isn’t it?"

"Kazunari…" Midorima saw tears gather at the corners of Takao’s eyes. "Kazunari you fool…" he muttered, sliding out of his lab coat to cover his partner’s shaking shoulders.

[ ](http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=35112218)

"Shin-chan?" Golden eyes were wide open, but Takao wasn’t looking at Midorima despite facing him. "Shin-chan! Where are you?" His voice was rising, panic seeping in. "I can’t see you! Where are you?! Shin-chan?!"

"I’m right here, Kazunari, can’t you see me, you fool?"

"I can’t, Shin-chan." A quiet sob. "I can’t see anything. Not anymore…"

Midorima puzzled over it; Takao’s eyes looked perfectly healthy to him, even with the slow constriction rate of the pupil. “But how…”

Takao managed to smile through his tears, even though it was a sad quirk of the lips. “You tell me, Midorima- _sensei._ You’re the doctor here.”

Teeth worried at his bottom lip; despite Takao’s tendency to joke and act like a fool, Midorima knew he wasn’t playing this time round. Quietly he felt the back of his partner’s head, fingers tracing the bandages wrapped around his head.

_Skull seems intact from the top._ He ran his fingers lower until his fingers encountered a wet spot that dipped inwards, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Takao.

"Shin-chan, that hurt…"

"Apologies." Removing his fingers, Midorima tried not to panic at the spotted red stains on the tips. "Kazunari, listen to me. I need to put you under the X-ray machine. It won’t take long; I only need to assess the damage to your head."

Takao nodded, though his grip on Midorima’s arms was still strong. “Okay, Shin-chan.”

A quick word with the nurses and soon Takao was wheeled out to the X-ray room. It felt like hours until Takao’s scan was done and over with, and Midorima went over the slides, scrutinising every single detail. He worried at his bottom lip, drawing the most painful conclusion to Takao’s recent disability.

"Fracture of the skull on the left hemisphere, concentrated on the posterior," he explained to Takao, the blank amber stare unnerving him slightly. He was surprised how calm his voice sounded, even when he knew the situation was dire. "Bone fragments and glass shards were found embedded in the gray matter, damaging the primary visual cortex located on the surface of the posterior occipital lobe."

Takao chuckled again, reaching out to touch Midorima’s shoulder but ended up patting his face. “Shin-chan, I love you and all that, but I don’t get what you just said to me. Care to repeat that again in terms that I do understand?”

"In short, Kazunari-" he took a deep breath and stared into Takao’s eyes, voice breaking in the end.

"Your hawk eyes have been stolen. You’ve been rendered blind by the accident."

"W-what?"

"I’m sorry I didn’t notice it sooner, Kazunari."


End file.
